Letter to the Olympia City Council in support of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project

author : Jennifer Loewenstein topic : Olympia City Council | Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project | Palestine | Rachel Corrie | Rafah

Dear City Councilmen and Women,

It has come to my attention that the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project is attempting to effect an official sister-city relationship with the cities of Olympia, Washington and Rafah, Gaza. By now you are no doubt aware of the many reasons they wish to pursue this, including to pay tribute to Rachel Corrie whose untimely death in Gaza on March 16th, 2003 should have been met with outrage across the United States. Instead it was met with silence or, in some cases, the vicious attempt to distort what happened to her and why. Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a D9 Bulldozer as it cleared the land adjacent to, and sought to destroy, the homes of residents in Rafah whose sole crime was that they lived too close to a "closed military zone" proclaimed by the Israeli Army on occupied land in Gaza. Rachel, along with a number of other members of the International Solidarity Movement, sought -- through non-violent means -- to disrupt this pattern of home demolitions and the subsequent displacement of thousands of people. Since 2001 more than 23,000 Gazans have been forced from their homes as the result of Israeli home demolition policies. Seventeen thousand of these people came from Rafah.

In addition to paying tribute to Rachel, the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project members hope to establish badly needed humanitarian ties to the people of Rafah in an act of solidarity and friendship. The importance of such ties should not be underestimated or dismissed especially at a time when it is easier to demonize and denounce Palestinians and Arab and Muslim groups across the Middle East than to embrace and accept them. The United States gives Israel between 3 and 5 billion dollars each year for military and financial purposes. The people of Palestine are invariably on the receiving end of the military hardware Israel is using to enforce an illegal and increasingly deadly occupation. It would be well worth the efforts and consideration of city councils across this country to find ways to mitigate the damage done to the image of the United States as it backs the unconscionable and illegal policies of Israel. Sanctioning official twinning relationships is one way in which the citizens of the US can reach out to people in the occupied Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the region as an indication of genuine goodwill and the desire for mutual understanding and cooperation.

Having lived in Rafah, Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, I cannot overstate the importance of repairing the damaged reputation of the US across that diverse, ancient and beautiful region. In Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt I was treated with kindness, curiosity, openness and hospitality unmatched in my travels to other regions of the world. This is remarkable not only because of the growing sentiment against US government policies there but because it so dramatically contrasts with the image of the Middle East that the average American receives through the mass media here. To say I was treated with great consideration and respect while living in or traveling to various Middle Eastern cities understates my point. I am an American, a woman, and a Jew -- and yet was never treated rudely or dismissively. On the contrary, I found people all the more eager to talk to me to try to understand why it was the United States persisted in seeing them so negatively. Again and again I heard the same comments, "we are against the government of the US, not its people. You are welcome here always," and -- with regard to my being Jewish I heard repeatedly, "we are not anti-Jewish; we are against the occupation and against Zionism. There is a big difference for us. We want to live in peace with the Jews."

Those who treat such statements suspiciously have only to spend time in these regions or in the company of the people they fear to find out for themselves whether or not they are sincere, open to discussion, compromise and cooperation. In my experience compassion, a sense of shared humanity, and the desire to resolve conflicts and communicate openly with people is met overwhelmingly with similar sentiments wherever one might travel and in particular in the Middle East where conflict has defined life for so many people for such a long time. This is perhaps the most important reason of all to welcome the chance to twin with a city like Rafah, whose people have endured so much and who yet still reach out to us with hope and the desire for friendship.

There are many sistering relationships across the US with cities and towns in Israel. These are equally commendable and desirable and for the same reason -- to emphasize our shared interests and common humanity. Why not broaden those bonds to include people we have tended to ignore or diminish over the years? We have only ideals and the pressing desire to stop what sometimes seems an inexorable slide into conflict and war to keep us from despair. Let's try to make these ideals and desires concrete by building bridges across nations rather than hateful barriers and roadblocks between them.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Loewenstein,

Founder, Madison-Rafah

Sister City Project

Madison, WI

Jennifer Loewenstein is a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre. She has lived and worked in Gaza City, Beirut and Jerusalem and has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, where she has worked as a freelance journalist and a human rights activist.